How To Create A Website – In 3 Simple Steps

The time has come! You are ready to learn how to make your own website.

The process can seem difficult and confusing; however, do not give up just yet. You can learn how to create your own website by following this step-by-step tutorial in just one sitting.

By the time you are finished reading this tutorial, you will have your own personal or professional site up and running in no more than an hour.

Before you can get started creating your personal or professional website, you will need to find the exact domain name for your website and a web hosting company. You will need to seriously evaluate the company that you choose for these services because the stability of the hosting company will determine a lot about your site including the availability, reliability, and the time it takes for users to open up and operate the website. We will show you the most reliable company for these services.

Just in case you are not familiar with the technical terms, a domain name is the URL that users will use to locate your website.

Once you have set up your domain name and the account to host your website, which should not take any longer than five minutes, you will be focused on configuring your website. In order to configure your personal or professional website, you will be using an online tool called WordPress. This is a really intuitive tool that makes creating tailored, and unique websites easy and fun.

Are you ready to get started? Alright, let’s go!

Step 1- Choose Your Domain Name

The first thing you will need to do before you get started is figure out a domain name that will best represent your needs for creating a website. This will be partially determined by whether your website is personal or professional in nature.

Here are some basic guidelines when learning how to build your own website in reference to the domain name:

Try to make the name relevant to your purposes for creating the website.

Make the domain name clear and concise.

Make the domain name short and easy to remember.

Figure out the appropriate extension (.com, .net, .org etc.)

For example, if you were going to start a website for a school then it might be something like:
www.LocalHighSchool.com

Once you have a couple strong variations on the domain name that you wish to use for your website, enter them into the domain name availability tool below and it will tell you if your chosen domain name is available or not.

DOMAIN AVAILABILITY TOOL

Enter your desired domain name in the box below (without any extension) and click Search.

Please wait...

Once you have an available domain name, you are ready to set up an account with a web hosting service.

Step 2- Set Up A Web Hosting Account

As we discussed previously, the second thing that every website must have in order to work is a web hosting service. This is the actual server that will house your website and make it available 24/7 for the whole world to see.

Here at income.com we recommend a company called GreenGeeks, they are an American company and have execpional services and support at a very reasonable price.

So head on over to GreenGeeks.com and follow the steps below to get your web hosting setup.

Once you are at the screen pictured above, you will click on the “Sign Up Now” button and be redirected to the page pictured below:

In the box to the left of the screen you will enter the domain name that you have chosen and click “Next.” (If you already have a domain name, then you will use the box to the right!)

Then you will see the Secure Order Form, which looks like this:

Here you just need to enter your details, choose a payment method and a suitable Plan. (You should also see a discount code already in the Coupon Box from clicking the link above).

When choosing a plan, note that the longer time period you pay for upfront, the cheaper it becomes, I usually pay for 2 or 3 years upfront, so I can take advantage of their free domain registration and the cheaper rates, but it’s totally up to you which plan suits your needs.

Once you have completed the order form, simply click the “Create My Account” button at the bottom and then complete the payment via your chosen payment method.

You will then receive a confirmation email from GreenGeeks once your web host account is all setup and then you will be able to proceed to step 3.

Step 3- Setting Up Your Website

Ok, now that we have our domain name and web hosting sorted out, its now time to actually learn how to build a website. There are lots of different ways you can build a website, but the most popular method by far is to use a free piece of software called WordPress. WordPress makes it easy enough for anyone to create their own website or blog, it’s really user friendly and you don’t need to know any coding or programming to make it work.

It is also completely customizable, and able to create anything from a basic 1 or 2 page website to a huge thousand page authority site (and everything in between).

WordPress is also very popular within the web development community, so if you ever do need any help, or want to do something a little more complex, you can always find a programmer who can help and it doesn’t usually very much because everyone is so familiar with WordPress.

WordPress also allows you to choose from thousands of pre-designed themes, which you can use to change the look and feel of your website with just a few clicks, which means that you don’t have to spend your money hiring expensive web designers to get your website looking great.

GreenGeeks.com provides clients with a simple way to install WordPress in just a few clicks. (which is another reason why I recommend GreenGeeks).

Head on over to your “GreenGeeks Account Manager.” The link is provided below, and also located in your welcome email.

https://www.greengeeks.com/login/login.php

It should look like the image below:

All you have to do is enter your email and password that were provided to you in the GreenGeeks email, and then click login to Account Manager.

Then click on the “cPanel Login” icon, it is blue.

There is an impressive amount of features and options of things that you can tinker around with later; however, for now simply click on the blue WordPress Logo to access the installer.

Next you should see the screen below which gives you some information about WordPress. When you are ready just click on the Install button at the top.

The next screen is where you will need to fill out a few setup options, is looks like this:

The first two options (Choose protocol and Choose Domain) will already be set, so you can just leave them as is.

Then in the next section (In Directory) you need to tell it where to install the software. Most people will want to clear this box, so that WordPress is installed on the main domain, but if you want it inside a different directory, you can enter one here. Otherwise just delete any text that it in this box and move on.

The Database name should be pre-set, so again just leave those settings as they are.

Next you will see “Site Settings”

Here you can enter your website name and a simple description or tag line. (don’t worry you can change these later).

You can also just leave the “Enable Multisite” option un-ticked.

Next you will need to enter a username, password and email, these will be your main logins to manage your website, so make sure you record these somewhere safe:

Then last but not least you will see the “Select Launguage” option and “Limit Login Attempts”, which you can again just leave them as they are and click the Install Button.

After a minute or two you should see the screen below, which means that the software has been installed and is ready to go.

Congratulations, you have just successfully setup a basic website.

At the moment it will just be an empty site, using WordPress’s Default Theme, but we will show you how to use it in a minute.

For now, just check that your website has been setup correctly, by going to your domain and see what comes up.

You should see something like this: (although the basic themes do sometimes change).

Managing Your Website

To manage your new website, you will login to the WordPress dashboard, which is like your website management area.

To access this simple enter your domain name and add /wp-admin/ to the end of it.

For example: www.YourDomainName.com/wp-admin/

Then you will need to enter the username and password you created in the last step, and once you are logged in, you should see your Dashboard:

Down the left hand side of your Dashboard, you will see links to all the tools you will need to manage your website. Take some time to get familiar with these as this is where you will manage your website from now on.

Below we will give you a brief desciption of all the main areas, but we strongly suggest that you also check out our “Managing WordPress” Video tutorials to get an in-depth view at how all these options work.

Here are some of the main features:

1. Posts and Pages

WordPress will provide you with the capability to create 2 different types of web pages:

Posts and Pages.

Posts are created when you make a blog.

You will be able to post small previews on each of your pages. Then users will have the ability to click on a link to read the remainder of the post.

If you do not like that set up you can use traditional pages and offer links from your “Homepage”.

Either is perfectly fine, and it is determined by your personal preferences.

2. Media

WordPress helps you to upload any media that you would like to enhance your website’s functionality and appearance. This includes images, videos, etc.

3. Links

WordPress enables you to create links and widgets for your website. This is convenient and makes WordPress a valuable tool.

4. Comments

Users who visit your site will be able to make comments on your content if you enable this interesting feature.

This can make for a very personable experience with your website; however, this depends upon the purpose of the site you are learning how to build.

5. Appearance

The appearance of your website is completely up to yo u and your personal preferences. You will have the freedom to make your site as fun, exciting, clean, fresh, and interesting as you wish to make it.

By using GreenGeeks.com and WordPress to learn how to make a website you are getting a great experience for building a website without all of the headaches of programming and coding.

6. Plugins

One of the other great features with WordPress is the functionality of adding plugins. You can access free plugins to enhance your website! These include, but are not limited to: visitor counter, image slideshow, etc.

All you have to do is search for what you are looking for and install the plugins with an easy click of a button.

Just like learning how to build your own website, all of this and more about how to set up WordPress after the initial installation is explained in our other free website tutorials. Be sure to check them out!